Welsh Government have launched a consultation to reopen parts of Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation, an area of European importance for marine wildlife, to one of the most environmentally destructive methods of fishing used around British coasts. It is a scandalous proposal which needs a wide public response telling them not to do so.

A recent article in the Guardian by George Monbiot highlights some of the problems with the proposals and the unreliable science that Welsh Government is using to justify them.

Some of the consultation document is very misleading, although this might not be at all obvious unless readers are familiar with the history of scallop fishing in the Bay, and/or scallop dredging and its impacts, and/or the Cardigan Bay SAC site. Welsh Government is relying heavily on an “evidence base” provided by researchers from Bangor University which has appears to have some pretty fundamental shortcomings. However, there is a lot of it and we are working through the reports to identify the most significant flaws. We will post a briefing note here to help respond object to the consultation as soon as we can.